5 January 2012

This piece of art was taken from the original British Pathe newsreel "Beautifying! Where To Put The Accent!".

Iconic makeup specialist Jean Barrie, introduced here as the "Editress of Woman's Fair Magazine" gives a supposedly plain girl a makeover adding eyebrows, eyelashes and lipstick. We then see a demonstration on an older woman with a fuller face.The final section of the video tackles glasses and discusses which types of spectacles a lady should wear.

Click in the player for watch the video. If you can not see it, click in this link.

With movie stars unashamedly made up, the concept of cosmetics moved into the mainstream. Ordinary women were no longer nervous about using powder, lipstick, mascara and rouge (blush). And makeup had another appeal during the Depression; for the price of a tube of lipstick, a woman could treat herself to something that would improve her appearance and her self-confidence.

Whether her goal was to marry or to attempt to enter the workforce, women needed every advantage when it came to looking glamorous. With film becoming more accessible to more people, real women were exposed to the fads and fashions of Hollywood, with the result that makeup usage spread across the country. But nail polish was the toughest sell: early market research showed that women thought it looked cheap and tacky; it was fine for movie stars, but real women were opting out.

It took a concerted effort by film studios and advertisers into the 1940s to get American women to paint their nails, but with encouragement from the day's greatest female stars, nail polish made it to the mainstream.

On the morning ofJanuary 5, 1956the tabloids headlines only talked about asingletopic:GraceKellyenganged!.The news of one of that media said: "Prince Rainier III of Monaco, often referred to as one of the world’s most eligible bachelors, spent Christmas Day visiting actress Grace Kelly at her Philadelphia home, her father, John B. Kelly, Sr., said yesterday. The latter, a prominent contractor, and his wife declined to comment on reports that Miss Kelly might become engaged to the wealthy 32-year-old prince".